The anime adaptation of of Fairy Tail has been announced as ending on the 30th of March – and along with it the seiyuu career of no less an icon than Aya Hirano herself, as her last remaining major role was that of Lucy.

The end:

Fairy Tail fans have been complaining of poor timing for the ending, which some suspect to have been precipitated largely by the poor reception its recent movie release experienced.

The manga original is expected to continue unaffected – and mangaka Hiro Mashima has commented on Twitter that “I can’t say anything now, but please bear the wait until the day I can make a good announcement,” which has been interpreted as a possible restart of the anime once the manga has accumulated more of a lead.

However, as the show represented 25-year-old Aya Hirano’s last remaining significant role since her dramatic fall from grace, as much attention seems to have focused on what will become of her “seiyuu” status.

According to a twit made by Hirano herself in 2011, supposed contractual issues were involved in her exit from the anime world – although it is hard to imagine many studios wanting to cast such a controversial figure amongst their top heroines:

“From last year I’m banned from appearing in any new anime, so I’m really grateful for 2nd seasons and long running shows! Really grateful!”

Although she does have some minor roles left in kiddy anime (in Anpanman and Jewelpet), no major active roles are now left her.

Despite not having any real roles at all, her agency still insists being a seiyuu is a core part of her career and dismisses any notion of her now concentrating on being a singer:

“Hirano entered the business as a seiyuu, and nothing about her main activity being that of a seiyuu has changed at all.

This is her agency’s real intent for her. She still has new offers, and she won’t refuse any she is capable of taking on.”

There is as usual a certain amount of scepticism accruing to these statements – the consensus appears to be that she has abandoned being a “multitalent” in favour of a monotalent career focused on generic J-pop, although some faithful lifeliners apparently still believe she is merely biding her time for a return to voice acting glory:

“She can start by stopping being a blonde and going back to black…”

“This is the girl who made a fuss about that taxi?”

“When the Monogatari casting changed I knew it was a scary business.”

“She still has a few small roles aside from Fairy Tail…”

“She still has 5 glorious years of being a Jewelpet regular!”

“I thought so too! Perhaps she’d can take on some dubbing roles on travel drama and Korean soaps. Though please stay off any Hollywood movies.”

“She narrated some NHK documentaries too!”

“I don’t think there is any more demand for her now? Even if she is a great voice actress, part of her role as seiyuu is drawing in customers.”

“She’s mainly a seiyuu, so at least judge her on her voice acting, guys. Although I hate her voice and acting as well.”

“Being the top seiyuu is not a status you can maintain for long. Just look at what happened to Hayashibara, she doesn’t have any roles these days either.”

“That’s because she concentrated on her family and stopped taking new work? She still has a few big ones.”

“She had her reasons, don’t lump her in together with the likes of Hirano, someone who discarded fans and colleagues alike.”

“At least Hirano is good example to new seiyuu of how not to do it.”

“Nobody reporting on her career even touches on the those pictures. They really show what a scary business it is.”

“No demand indeed. I hope they pass her roles on to new blood.”

“Women have a short shelf life. There are always young new girls with talent and popularity available to replace them. No need to keep using damaged second-hand goods under the circumstances.”

“There are loads more in the business where she came from. The fact otaku hated her was the end of her.”

“It seems more like she was forced out of the business by the other seiyuu, but I think she was good to have around. Why does everyone hate her so much?”

“Without the repeated scandals and the constant strange utterances she would never have fallen this far.”

“She’s a perfect example of a star who ruined herself.”

“A carnivorous girl like this is too much for anime otaku. Adieu, Hirano.”

She has a big anime role coming in July in next great mecha girls anime in style of Strike Witches and Girls und Panzer. She was already in GuP as U.S. tank team radio officer, and she had many albeit minor roles last 2 years which Artifact has carefully ignored.

In addition to reprising her role as Kaoru in the Zettai Karen Children spinoff, she scored the lead role in its flashback arc. It's hard to take reports of her retirement seriously if she's still getting new major roles.

Correct. They say she slipped with all her coworkers and shit but all that was found is some blurry photo with one guy. Talking about going off your mouth. A perfect example of silly rumors since there never was any depiction of her sleeping with all of them and she if she had a relationship with one of them is quite a normal thing.

She wasn't really banned for sleeping around but because of fan demand, She slept with some guy so people were pissed, if an anime used her people wouldn't watch it because she was in it. Not that its much better but I think the wrong people are getting blamed here.

Sex is most definitely a good thing. But having it with multiple coworkers is disrespectful to both your craft and the industry in which you operate. That's what it's meant by "don't shit where you eat". Maybe that explains why she stopped caring about her seiyuu career. She doesn't really care for her job(s) after all.

In Hollywood her behavior is an accepted norm.
The same probably applies to Japan's entertainment industry as a whole just that here the cat got out of the bag.
Really these otaku need to grow up and realize that these people are not as perfect and virginal as they imagine to be.

yeah, Hollywood should probably quit that practice, actually. I see no reason why people should be inept from drug charges and other misgivings just because they got in front of a camera a few times.... hell, some of these assholes already get too much wealth and power as is. If they decide to be reckless (as if said wealth and power wasn't enough), there should be consequences much like there would be with anyone else.

It doesn't matter how crazy otakus are. Hirano joined this business by her own free will. She's GOT to know all those crazy sides of it and she's GOT to know that she profited from those crazies who pay a lot of cash for mundane shit like her photoshoot mags and albums of her shitty singing.

If she didn't want to go there, she should've just settled to singing from the beginning. If she's really honest about really wanting to be a seiyuu, there are plenty more subsets of the profession that grants her less exposure and more privacy, such as dubbing TV shows, movies and documentaries. Hell, she'll even earn much more if she goes to eroges as the per-word rates are much higher.

There's so many things wrong about people around Hirano, but I can't have sympathy for her when she chose this job herself.

I really don't think anyone has ever said it wasn't slutty, but it has absolutely nothing to do with her voice acting and I really don't give a shit about what she's doing in her personal life, so anyone holding it against her is extremely childish.

I don't think she was a bad actress, but I do have to agree with Anon 14:16 on this one. Her popularity just exploded after doing Haruhi, which was a good series but far from the end-all be-all of anime (and she was lucky to even land the role, considering she barely even had much of a resume at that point). Her popularity becoming so over-inflated the way it was may be precisely why it came crashing down so hard like this.

Incidentally, I wonder if Aoi Yuuki is in any danger of winding up the same way. She was also a bit of a rookie before she got casted for Madoka, the starring role for what has easily been the most successful anime out there (she also ended up as a Pokemon regular shortly before that). However, I don't hear near as many people raving on about her as they did with Hirano (or any of the MadoMagi seiyuu for that matter, aside from the occasional artwork poking fun at their other roles like Kyuubey and Kagami). Maybe Haruhi's problem is that, as opposed to many people loving the character herself, the voice behind her became too well known and she's the one who ended up getting hyped in turn (it probably didn't help that Lucky Star made a crapload of inside jokes concerning the matter). Conversely, maybe she just tried too hard promoting herself as a singer when, in the end, people only cared about her as an anime persona.

A lot of risk in business to cater to flakes as a customer base. That's just the bottom line if it is anime figures in Japan or selling some niche item in America. Some day the well will dry up when those types of customers turn on you, as they tend to do if you try to do something above their diminished level of taste.

The customers might as well want pink flying ponies, but that doesn't mean anime studios should branch into genetic engineering.
They are being unreasonable, and giving into it only encourages them to keep doing it.